1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for monitoring the health of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating a model for an electronic prognostics system.
2. Related Art
An increasing number of businesses are using computer systems for mission-critical applications. In such applications, a component failure can have a devastating effect on the business. For example, the airline industry is critically dependent on computer systems that manage flight reservations, and would essentially cease to function if these systems failed. Hence, it is critically important to monitor the health of these computer systems so that proactive actions can be taken to prevent a catastrophic failure of a computer system.
One technique for providing electronic prognostics (EP) capabilities in a computer system involves monitoring telemetry signals generated by the computer system using one or more pattern-recognition techniques. These pattern-recognition techniques typically use a model of a non-degraded computer system to determine whether the monitored computer system is at the onset of degradation. However, such models are generally developed through a time-consuming ad-hoc manual process, which may or may not produce an accurate model.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for generating a model for an electronic prognostics system without the above-described problems.